Welcome to the world's largest online community of tomato growers! If this is your first visit, please take a few moments and register to become a member of our community and have full access to all of our forums. (some are exclusive to members only) For more details about how to register, please click here.

The "parents" of Blush were Maglia Rosa and Zucchero (a tomato of ours that has not been released). Of course it is a little more complicated than "parents" since we bred Blush out to be true-breeding.

roper,
I didn't see Blush in any seed racks for Seeds of Change. But I only saw their racks in Home Depot. Is McDonalds a specialty nursery?

The "parents" of Blush were Maglia Rosa and Zucchero (a tomato of ours that has not been released). Of course it is a little more complicated than "parents" since we bred Blush out to be true-breeding.

roper,
I didn't see Blush in any seed racks for Seeds of Change. But I only saw their racks in Home Depot. Is McDonalds a specialty nursery?

We have found one batch of Highland Kale with dodgy germination. Unfortunately, some of the seed from this lot was sent out. If you have germination issues, please let me know so we can replace it. Germination should occur in 2-3 days, and if it does not, let me know so we can replace it immediately.

The lot has been composted, and all Highland Kale seed sent from now on will be good.

I wanted to mention that Artisan Seeds is always on the lookout for new open-pollinated varieties to release. Here an explanation of what we are looking for, and what releasing a new variety with us implies.

1. We are interested in trialing unique new varieties from breeders. Breeding need not mean anything more than recognizing a natural cross or mutation and growing the novel line for a number of generations until it "breeds true"

2. We only want to trial new varieties received from the person responsible for the creation of the line, or the maintenance of a family or cultural heirloom that is not generally available.

3. We only plan on releasing a handful of varieties a year, and once they are readily available elsewhere, we will no longer sell seeds. For example: Maglia Rosa is a variety we bred. We are proud of it, but since it is carried elsewhere, we do not sell seeds for it.

4. The bar is very high. The vast majority of our own true-breeding lines will never be introduced because they fall short. If you are submitting a line to us, for evaluation, please understand that you are essentially entering it into a very tough competition.

5. We want our website (still under construction) to be a simple place to find some of the best new varieties around. We are focused on new introductions, almost exclusively. That's our niche.

6. If we sell the variety you submitted to us, we will pay a royalty on all sales for as long as we sell it. In rare cases there may be a larger seed company that becomes interested in the variety you submit to us (because they see it among our breeding populations). At that point we will inform you as to their interest, and we can discuss potential options.

Yes. There will be no guaranteed royalties for any specific period, because we can't guarantee continued demand.

We will continue to offer varieties for as long as there are significant sales. Hopefully, some people will buy from us to support small independent breeders, but at some point successful varieties will be picked up by numerous other places and sold for less than we can afford to sell for.

It is hard to capture value from open pollinated varieties.

If a breeder can get a larger seed company to release a variety and give them royalties (and potentially even pay for a PVP) that would be a better scenario. However, it is next to impossible for small breeders to interest seed companies in protecting OP varieties and paying royalties.

The odds may go up, however, if we are trialing the variety. This is because it may get noticed by a larger seed company visiting our trials. Then the question may be "can the variety be protected".

Let's take the example of Captain Lucky. We are releasing this variety, and we have the breeder's blessing (and are paying a royalty for it).

But, Captain Lucky was freely distributed through informal channels and other small seed companies are releasing it too. This is not to say the breeder was right or wrong to distribute seed. We have also freely distributed seed for varieties that we will never make a penny on (Maglia Rosa, Spike and Lucinda). It is just something to think about when freely sending seed of that fantastic variety you have around...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tania

Fred,

Looks like breeders will not be guaranteed royalties once the seed is picked up by other seed companies? As you'd stop offering it?

I like the idea of having a very high 'bar' for varieties - this will justify much higher prices and hence higher royalties going to the breeders, which is very important!

I am updating the information regarding trialing lines with us. The points below are more explicit regarding what we are looking for, and what we can offer.

Artisan Seeds is always on the lookout for new open-pollinated varieties to release. Here an explanation of what we are looking for, and what releasing a new variety with us implies.

1. We are interested in trialing unique new varieties from breeders. Breeding need not mean anything more than recognizing a natural cross or mutation and growing the novel line for a number of generations until it "breeds true"

2. We only want to trial new varieties received from the person responsible for the creation of the line, or the maintenance of a family or cultural heirloom that is not generally available. Lines should be at least F5, and we are interested in trialing a maximum of 3 lines per breeder per year. We will not distribute your lines to anyone else without your permission, and we will only save seed after requesting that we be allowed to do so.

3. We only plan on releasing a handful of varieties a year, and once they are readily available elsewhere, we may no longer sell seeds. For example: Maglia Rosa is a variety we bred. We are proud of it, but since it is carried elsewhere, we do not sell seeds for it.

4. The bar is very high. The vast majority of our own true-breeding lines will never be introduced because they fall short. If you are submitting a line to us, for evaluation, please understand that you are essentially entering it into a very tough competition. We are not interested in introducing 20 good new tomatoes a year, we are focused on introducing at most 3 or 4 outstanding tomatoes in a year.

5. We want our website (still under construction) to be a simple place to find some of the best new varieties around. We are focused on new introductions, almost exclusively. That's our niche.

6. If we sell the variety you submitted to us, we will pay a royalty on all sales for as long as we sell it. Occasionally, there may be a larger seed company that becomes interested in a variety you submit to us (because they see it among our breeding populations and taste it). At that point we will inform you as to their interest, and we can discuss potential options.

7. Please contact us by February 1st if you have any unique lines you would like us to evaluate. Submitting a line with us does not obligate you to release it through us. We will consider it your property, until the day we negotiate with you to sell the variety.

8. One final note: We do not have the space to grow out lines that are going to be sold through other channels, or that are freely available to be sold through other channels. We are only interested in trialing new varieties that we can potentially adopt for an exclusive release (directly, or through larger seed company collaborators).